Proposal would let D.C. charter schools favor neighborhood kids

D.C. At-Large Councilman David Grosso proposed legislation that would allow new charter schools to give preference to students who live in the school's neighborhood. (Photo: Examiner file)

Students who live near a top-performing charter school would have greater odds at winning a seat in the school's lottery under a bill introduced in the D.C. Council Tuesday.

Present law requires D.C. public charter schools to open enrollment to all students in the District through a lottery system. The bill at-large Councilman David Grosso introduced Tuesday would change that by allowing new charter schools to give preference to students who live in the school's neighborhood.

The change would not affect the city's 57 existing charter schools, on 102 campuses, but would apply to any school opening after the new law is signed.

Top-tier public charter schools

School

Ward

Percentage of students within 1 mile

Percentage of students in ward

Achievement Preparatory Academy

8

47 percent

82 percent

Capital City - Lower School

1

46 percent

42 percent

Center City - Brightwood

4

73 percent

82 percent

Center City - Petworth

4

76 percent

73 percent

Cesar Chavez - Chavez Prep

1

56 percent

50 percent

Community Academy - Butler

2

25 percent

20 percent

D.C. Prep - Edgewood Middle Campus

5

32 percent

49 percent

E.L. Haynes

4

42 percent

34 percent

Howard University Math and Science

1

20 percent

15 percent

Kipp D.C. - AIM

8

54 percent

82 percent

Kipp D.C. - College Preparatory

8

25 percent

50 percent

Kipp D.C. - KEY Academy

7

42 percent

64 percent

Kipp D.C. - WILL

6

38 percent

26 percent

Latin American Montessori Bilingual

4

25 percent

50 percent

Paul

4

41 percent

57 percent

SEED*

7

20 percent

37 percent

Thurgood Marshall Academy

8

27 percent

71 percent

Two Rivers - Elementary School

6

30 percent

45 percent

Washington Latin Middle School

4

11 percent

22 percent

Washington Latin High School

4

17 percent

35 percent

*Boarding school

Source: D.C. Public Charter School Board

Participating schools would be required to offer at least 20 percent of open seats or 40 seats, whichever is smaller, to students in the neighborhood. A school's neighborhood would be defined using the same geographic boundaries used to determine which DC Public Schools guarantee seats to students in an area.

Grosso said he proposed the measure at the urging of charter schools that would like to be able to develop a stronger relationship with the surrounding neighborhood.

"Parents are choosing to go to charter schools, as it is, all over the city," he said. "This just allows them to do it in their own neighborhood if they want to."

Grosso pointed to Kipp D.C., which has nine campuses spread across Wards 2, 7 and 8, as an example of a charter school that had expressed interest in giving preference to neighborhood students. Since Kipp is already established in the District, though, Kipp would not be able to take advantage of the measure as proposed.

The bill opposes recommendations made in December by a committee that was overseen by the Public Charter School Board and included Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson and Interim Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Leonard. A neighborhood preference is unnecessary since 35 percent of charter school students already go to a school within a mile of home and 49 percent go to a school within their ward, the committee explained.

Thousands of kids travel every day from Wards 7 and 8 to schools west of the Anacostia River, he explained. "A neighborhood preference in an affluent ward ... would shut out those kids from east of the river."

Several other cities allow charters to give preference to neighborhood students, with restrictions.

In New Orleans, for example, only charter schools that offer kindergarten through eighth grade are required to give neighborhood students priority, according to the D.C. committee report.

But these cities are exceptions to the rule, said Todd Ziebarth, senior vice president for state advocacy and support at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "The rule [is] that charters are typically open enrollment," he said.